ACLU, GoLocal Prov sue Providence Public School District for failure to disclose

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Attorneys representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and GoLocalProv are suing the Providence Public School District and the city over failing to disclose public contract information.

The lawsuit alleges the PPSD of providing late and inappropriately redacted public records connected to a bidding process for a multi-million dollar Integrated Facilities Services project.

“We believe that this is clearly public information under the state’s open records act. We agreed to represent GoLocal and file an open records lawsuit on their behalf,” said Steven Brown, ACLU executive director.

Attorneys said Monday the lawsuit came after months of controversy around the bidding process for the yearly contract, which reached over $70 million.

The winner, ABM Industries, allegedly received a chance to enter an extra bid after its competitors, providing an unfair advantage.

“GoLocalProv has been doing some stories about this controversial contract that was awarded by the city of Providence dealing with facility management services in the school district. There were concerns over how the contract was awarded and concerns that one particular bidder had an extra opportunity to bid,” Brown said.

The PPSD also allegedly failed to release documentation of each proposal and the awarding of the contract for residents to review.

“This particular contract is one that will cost the taxpayers literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over I think the next five years and the public should know whether or not they got the best deal and if the district was acting in the best interest of the taxpayers and the constituents and deciding to give the bid to the entity that they ended up giving it to,” Brown said.

Josh Fenton, CEO and co-founder of GoLocalProv, said in a statement:

“Rhode Islanders and, in this case, especially Providence residents, should be concerned about the cover-up linked to the costs and awarding of a $72 million contract. It is an embarrassment for the McKee Administration to allow RIDE and PPSD to continue to withhold public documents.”

One ACLU attorney added that there is a “growing pattern” among education officials in Providence to try and deny the release of public records.

The ACLU also said this open records lawsuit will be expedited and they will be asking the judge to try to schedule the hearing on the complaint as soon as possible.

ABC 6 News reached out to the city, RIDE, and PPSD for comment and has not yet heard back.